TNT has announced the premiere dates for the upcoming summer season, including RIZZOLI & ISLES, THE CLOSER, LEVERAGE as well as the debuts of MAJOR CRIMES and PERCEPTION.
RIZZOLI & ISLES
• Season Premiere: Tuesday, June 5, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 3: 10 summer episodes
For the past two summers, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander have proven that two heads are better than one in this drama series based on the crime novels by best-selling author Tess Gerritsen. As Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, the pair share a quirky chemistry and put away some of Boston’s most notorious criminals.
FRANKLIN & BASH
• Season Premiere: Tuesday, June 5, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 2: 10 episodes
Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer star in this light-hearted legal drama as two fly-by-the seat-of-their-pants lawyers working for a button-down law firm. Malcolm McDowell plays the firm’s wonderfully eccentric patriarch. Also starring are Garcelle Beauvais, Dana Davis, Kumail Nanjiani and Reed Diamond.
DALLAS
• New Series, Two-Hour Series Premiere: Wednesday, June 13, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 1: 10 episodes
This summer, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray reprise their famous characters as J.R., Bobby and Sue Ellen Ewing return to Southfork with secrets, schemes and betrayals. This time, they’re joined by the next generation of Ewings, played by Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe, who take ambition and deception to a new level.Dallas also stars Jordana Brewster, Julie Gonzalo and Brenda Strong. Shot on location in the title city, Dallas comes to TNT from Warner Horizon Television, with premiere episode writer Cynthia Cidre and director Michael M. Robin serving as executive producers. It was developed by Cidre and created by David Jacobs.
FALLING SKIES
• Two-Hour Season Premiere: Sunday, June 17, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 2: 10 episodes
The wait is nearly over as basic cable’s #1 new series of 2011 returns to continue its extraordinary story about life and survival in the wake of a catastrophic alien invasion. Noah Wyle stars as a college professor who becomes an unlikely resistance leader in this gripping series from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg. Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Maxim Knight and Connor Jessup also star.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
• New Series Premiere: Sunday, June 24, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 1: 10 episodes
This fast-paced, nail-biting competition series drops ordinary people into the middle of their own epic action/adventure movie. Each week, Rich Eisen (NFL Total Access) hosts as teams of competitors try to find their way out of seemingly impossible situations for a chance to take home a cash prize. The series, from Fox Television Studios, is executive-produced by the Oscar®-winning team of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, as well as the Emmy-winning producers of The Amazing Race, Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri. The series is created and executive produced by Justin W. Hochberg (The Apprentice) and Charlie Ebersol (The Wanted).
THE CLOSER
• Premiere: Monday, July 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 7: Six final episodes
TNT’s record-breaking series returns one last time to bring its extraordinary seven-year run to an end. Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick stars as Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, whose impeccable investigative and interrogation skills have resulted in countless confessions and convictions. Mary McDonnell, who will continue her role as Captain Sharon Raydor in TNT’s upcoming seriesMajor Crimes, also stars.
PERCEPTION
• New Series Premiere: Monday, July 9, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 1: 10 episodes
Drama fans are about to meet one of the most unique crime solvers on television when TNT premieres this fascinating new series about an eccentric neuroscience professor who is recruited by the FBI to help solve complex cases. Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award winner Eric McCormack stars as Dr. Daniel Pierce, who possesses an intimate knowledge of human behavior and a masterful understanding of the way the mind works. Although Pierce’s mind may be brilliant, it’s also damaged as he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Perceptionalso stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Arjay Smith and Kelly Rowan. Produced by ABC Studios, the series was created by executive producer Ken Biller and co-executive producer Mike Sussman, with McCormack serving as producer.
LEVERAGE
• Season Premiere: Sunday, July 15, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 5: 10 summer episodes
Television’s coolest gang of thieves, grifters and con artists are back in the fifth season of this fast-paced, light-hearted caper series from blockbuster executive producer Dean Devlin and Electric Entertainment. Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton stars, along with Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge.
MAJOR CRIMES
• New Series Premiere: Monday, Aug. 13, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), following The Closer finale
• Regular Timeslot: Mondays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
• Season 1: 10 episodes
This all-new drama series is ready to take television’s favorite squad of detectives into bold new territory. Two-time Oscar® nominee Mary McDonnell will continue her role from The Closer as Los Angeles Police Captain Sharon Raydor. Major Crimes will focus on how the American justice system approaches the art of the deal as law-enforcement officers and prosecutors work together to score a conviction. Joining McDonnell are fellow Closer veterans G.W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz and Phillip P. Keene, with guest appearances by Jon Tenney and Robert Gossett. New cast members include Graham Patrick Martin as a homeless juvenile and Kearran Giovanni as an ambitious undercover detective.Major Crimes is produced by The Shephard/Robin Company, in association with Warner Bros. Television, with The Closer’s James Duff, Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin serving as executive producers.
Awesome episode. This is an excellent show. I wish I jumped on board sooner. I’ve got a lot to say so I’ll keep it brief.I did like that they resolved my biggest complaint about the S2 finale, which was that it made the other world feel like a bad and evil place as opposed to another world fighting for it’s own survival. Introducing the Taxi Driver for the episode, having Charlie and Lincoln go to help who they think is thier friend. Those little things added up. It still hasn’t rid the vibe that they are the villains but they’ll get there if they keep adding those human touches. But what I really love. It’s answered things, it’s set up things but they’ve made it very clear that there’s no resolution yet. This story is still going and there will be a few twists and turns on the way. The most immediate comparison I want to make is probably with Smallville which not as strong in some aspects but it does do over arching stories with the monster of the week idea. And as much as I groan and moan about it I do think it does build up rather well. Resolution is where that fails.But that isn’t happening with Fringe right now. The S2 cliffhanger. Olivia stuck there.The start of this episode, some time has passed. Olivia is stuck there.The end of this episode. Olivia has been brainwashed and is still stuck there.And it won’t be a stretch to think in a few episodes time. Olivia will still be stuck there. It’s actually refreshing that there’s no Deus Ex Machina resolve this soon. Anna Torv was fantastic in this episode. In a single episode she has made me feel sad and hopeless for Olivia, panic when she was brain washed and rage when Bolivia just appeared on screen. That’s brilliant stuff. Yeah I also hope that they don’t do a long set up on Bolivia. But I kind of hope they don’t do the predictable and cliched thing and have Walter realize that Bolivia isn’t their Olivia only for no one else to believe him for some time. The one thing I’ve heard that Joshua Jackson said he’d like to happen. He’d like for Peter to choose Bolivia only to realize that he chose wrong. I like that idea a lot.
Superb start for season 3 of Fringe. This show has come on leaps and bounds from the early “freak of the week” storylines. While those episodes still have their place, Fringe is at its best dealing with its overall mythology of the alternate universe. This current storyline has the actors really using their acting skills in order to show us the subtle differences between their characters across the universes. And I agree with you guys. The casting of Andre Royo (Bubbles in The Wire) was absolutely spot-on. You believe he is just an ordinary cabbie and you can tell he had major issues in his life (possibly drugs like in The Wire) and he has struggled. I just hope that this show survives this season. FOX has committed to a full 22 episode season but will there be a season 4? It was a HUGE mistake for FOX to move Fringe to Thursday nights to compete against CSI and Grey’s Anatomy.